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April 19, 2005
Child abuse victim speaks out
Alabama
The WAFF 48 News Investigators have spent the past several weeks uncovering information on sex clusters in the heart of the Valley.
Just two weeks ago, we showed you 7 child sex offenders living in one Valley motel. Now, we tell you about another cluster, this one is in Marshall County. 17 of the 25 registered sex offenders are living in a particular area of Albertville, located off Highway 431 on Rose Road and neighborhoods close by.
Another cluster is located in the Rabbit Town community. The WAFF 48 News Investigators paid a visit to Sand Mountain and talked to a young man who has experienced sexual abuse there first hand.
You may ask, "Why are we investigating sex clusters?" The answer is simple: To arm you with information. What signs should you look for in your kids and those they are associating with? A brave yet nervous 17 year old, we'll call Trey, talks publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse that left him scarred and changed forever.
Thanks to one man, Named William McMurry, who met Trey, then 14, at a gospel singing. The young man describes that first encounter.
"It was in the mall and I met him, he asked me if I wanted some coffee and I said no. And then we talked a little bit about this girl I knew. Then I went home and I saw him the next week. He didn't act the same as he did the first time I saw him. I went to the bathroom and then he got me down and started tickling me and stuff and I thought that's not normal. Then he asked for my phone number and asked if he could take me fishing. I said that's fine as long as my mom and them don't care."
That fishing trip was the first of many outings. McMurry also took Trey to church. Each experience worse than the one before.
Trey explained, "He tried to make me touch him and stuff and I didn't like that. He told me if I told anybody, he'd tell my dad, he'd kill my dad, so I didn't really have a choice there."
Five months down the road, Trey worked up enough courage to tell about the painful experiences he'd had with McMurry.
"He was still hanging around my friends. I knew what he was doing to them. And if I didn't tell, there would be other kids involved," Trey said.
Unfortunately, other kids were already involved. But thanks to Trey, Marshall County investigators along with the FBI, caught on to McMurry's dirty secrets. John Young was one of those agents responsible for putting the pedophile behind bars. Young remrmbers McMurry well.
"This guy worked at a youth camp for instance in the summers, in part of his career. He was involved with the Boy Scouts. He was involved with several different church organizations. It was a method to the madness he was after. It was a design. None of it was from the heart. It was for other reasons."
Those "reasons" still haunt Trey today. Even though he tries to get on with his life.
"I just try to block it out. It makes it easier knowing he's behind bars."
William McMurry is currently serving time in the Ashevlille jail in Saint Claire County, Alabama. He'll likely never get out of prison. Unfortunately there are other offenders who have never even been arrested since their victims have yet to speak out.
Posted by Nealus at April 19, 2005 12:43 PM
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